Ring

CultureChinese

Date3rd century B.C.E.

MediumJade (nephrite)

DimensionsOverall: 6 9/16 inches (16.67 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number50-43

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

East Asian Art

Terms

Exhibition History

3000 Years of Chinese Jade, Arden Gallery, New York, January 10-February 11, 1939, no. 153.

Masterpieces of Asian Art, Asia Society, New York, 1960.

Gallery Label

Rings often were hung from belts or sashes, but examples decorated with such exquisite openwork as this piece are very rare. The ornament comprising interlaced ribbons with bird heads is unusually fluid and seems to imitate the style of lacquerwork practiced in the southern state of Chu. The deep green color of the jade is also characteristic of that region and reinforces the likelihood that the piece is of Chu manufacture.

Provenance

With C. T. Loo & Co., Paris and New York, stock no. 85440, by June 1936-1950 [1];

Purchased from C. T. Loo, Inc. by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1950.

NOTES:

[1] Another possible stock number is JN-7/41, according to the stock card in C. T. Loo/Frank Caro archive, Musée Guimet, Paris, copy in Nelson-Atkins curatorial files. C. T. Loo & Co. was incorporated as C. T. Loo, Inc. in 1949.

Published References

3000 Years of Chinese Jade (New York: Arden Gallery, 1939), 35, 77, (repro.).

Judith Hart Burling, Arthur Hart Burling, Chinese Art (New York: Studio, 1953), pl. 262 (repro.).

Sueji Umehara, Shina Kogyoku Zuroku (Kyoto: Kuwana Bunseido, Showa 30, 1955), pl. IX (repro.).

von Eleanor v. Erdberg Consten, Das Alte China (Stuttgart: G. Kilpper, 1958), pl. 55 (repro.).

Ross E. Taggart, ed., Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 4th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1959), 178 (repro.).

Capolavori nei Secoli: enciclopedia di tutti le arti, di tutti i popoli, in tutti i tempi, no. 25 (Milano : Fratelli Fabbri, May 12, 1962), 22 (repro.).

S. Howard Hansford, Chinese Carved Jades (London: Faber, 1968), pl. 40 a (repro.).

Ross E. Taggart, George L. McKenna, and Marc F. Wilson, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. II, Art of the Orient. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 22 (repro.).

Apollo, special issue for the Asian art collection in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Vol. XCVII, no. 133 (March 1973), 57, no. 15 (repro.).

William Watson, L’Art del’ Ancienne Chine, (Paris: Éditions d’art Lucien Mazenod, 1979), 462, no. 588 (repro.).

Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, 7th ed. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008), 299, no. 52 (repro.).

Information about a particular artwork or image, including provenance information, is based upon historic information and may not be currently accurate or complete. Research on artwork and images is an ongoing process, and the information about a particular artwork or image may not reflect the most current information available to the Museum. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about a particular artwork or image, please e-mail provenance@nelson-atkins.org.